Relatively soft and flexible articles such as disposable diapers, catemenial pads, incontinent briefs and the like have entered widespread use in many parts of the world over the last 20-30 years; many of these products are produced as catemenial webs which are typically folded one or more times parallel to the direction of web travel as they travel through the converting lines in the machine direction and are ultimately cut from the web to form discrete single use articles. The discrete articles are typically folded at the midpoint, collected in stacks and inserted into paperboard or cardboard cartons or flexible bags.
Flexible articles, such as disposable diapers, have been compressed prior to packing and shipping for about the last 5-7 years, to increase number of articles per bag and reduce space. Flexible bags for compressed articles are disclosed in e.g. EP A 349 050.
In one execution of such bags which is currently used in the market place two superimposed stacks of folded articles, in particularly baby diapers, are present in order to offer more articles per packaging item. Such bags have been described in e.g. EP A 406 928.
In current manufacturing/packaging methods, stacks of folded diapers in said bags are typically inserted in subsequent order, in an open flexible bag with the folded areas in each stack facing the same forward direction, and the bag being sealed at the rear of the second stack.
In the resulting package, the non-folded area of the secondly introduced stack of diapers, which correspond to the waist area of the diapers, finds itself in contact or close vicinity to the end panel formed after the sealing of the bag.
Such a configuration can lead to several disadvantages:
Indeed, the open ended area of folded diapers which typically correspond to the waist area of the articles, often contain devices like containment bands and fastening elements, which, are more collapsible compared to the rest of the diapers, and when exposed to outside pressure due to their close vicinity to the end panels, can suffer damage; indeed, especially bags filled with compressed diapers are typically quite compact and, when superimposed on to the other for transportation or storage, will have the tendency to exert pressure on any relatively weak area; such waist area of packed articles would typically constitute such a weak area;
Another issue encountered with current packing methods in the bags described above is that the sealing which occurs at the rear of the secondly introduced stack, can damage the adjacent area of the articles, which, as mentioned above, is the waist area containing collapsible features.
It has now been found that the above problems may be solved if the stacks in bags are arranged in such a way that none of the non-folded ends, corresponding to the waist area of the packed articles is in contact or in close vicinity with the end panels, but rather positioned toward the inside of the bag; It has also been found that such an arrangement provides better stability to the resulting bags, when superimposed on each other, for e.g. transportation and storage.